Tabulating mechanism



p 26, H. A. FOOTHOEYQAP El AL 1,923,417

TABULATING MECHANISM Filed July 30, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 gmwn Ulla/7 x, kg: I M1719 a2,

pt. 26, 1933. H. A. FOOTHORAP AL 1,928,417

TABULATING MECHANISM Filed July 30, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IIIIIII. 'IIIIIIIIIIIII I Jwvmtozs MI AFWZZOJ'W,

UHBO/ atented Sept. 26, 1933 TABULATING MEGHANISM Harry A. Foothorap, Harrisburg, Pa., Charles H.-

Bolton, Dallas,

Tex., and George F. Carter,

Nashville, Tenn., assignors to Elliott-Fisher Company, Harrisburg, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Application July 30, 1931; Serial No. 553,960

3 Claims. (01. 197-177) Our invention relates to improvements in tabulating mechanism of the type disclosed in our Patent No. 1,280,697, dated Oct. 8, 1918 and forming part of the equipment of the well-known Elliott- Fisher billing machine.

The principal object of our invention, generally speaking is to equip .the tabulating mechanism of the above patent for operation to jump or skip the carriage of the Elliott-Fisher machine past any desired number of predetermined column positions on the work.

To the accomplishment of the above and ancillary objects presently appearing, a preferred embodiment of our invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings set forth in detail in the following description and defined in the claims appended hereto.

In said drawings: Figure 1 is a top plan view illustrating a portion of an Elliott-Fisher billing machine equipped with our improved tabulating mechanism;

Figure 2 is a view in rear elevation of a series of movabel tabulating stop blades adapted to be mounted on the carriage of the Elliott-Fisher machine to be projected rearwardly thereof;

Figure 3 is a view in transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; v

Figure 4 is a similar view showing one of the movable stops projected and a relatively fixed column stop with which the movable stop engages;

Figure 5 is another view in transverse section taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1 and showing another and special tabulator stop blade also adapted to be projected rearwardly of the carriage;

Figure 6 is a similar view showing the same stop in projected position and a special relatively fixed column stop with which the special movable stop engages;

Figure 7 is a view in fixed special stop;

Figure 8 is a view in transverse section showing the relation of the parts in tabulating to a column position;

Figure 9 is a similar view illustrating a column skipping or jumping operation;

Figure 10 is a similar view further illustrating a column skipping operation;

Figure 11 is a perspective view of the special movable tabulating stop blade;

Figure 12 is a similar view of one of the series of movable stop blades, and

Figure 13 is a perspective view of a part of one of the fixed column stops.

The Elliott-Fisher machine, as disclosed in dedetail of the relatively tail in our patent, supra, is characterized by a carriage and down strike printing mechanism all mounted upon a line space frame for movement, thereon, over a sub-jacent fiat platen, to effect letter and column spacing. Mounted upon the rear side of the carraige, shown conventionally at 1, is a series of identically constructed tabulating blades 2 depending from a horizontal shaft 3, supported in a suitable bracket 4. The tabulating blades 2 are movable about said shaft to project their lower ends rearwardly into interfering relation with respect to a series of relatively stationary column stops 5 adapted to be arranged, in a common horizontal plane, upon a column stop bar 6 located in the rear of the carriage 1 and 7 secured at its opposite ends, by set screws 7, in sockets 8 in the line space frame 9. The column stops 5 each include a catch member 10 and a toothed portion 11 by which said stop may be engaged with graduated teeth on the stop bar 6 and held in any selected location thereon as will be understood.

The stop blades 2 are moved into interfering relation with respect to the column stops 5 by means of the usual column tabulator key and ten decimal tabulating keys the usual carriage re lease mechanism being operated by any of these keys. The operation and function of said keys and carriage release mechanism being wellunderstood in the art, and fully disclosed in our aforesaid patent, it has not been considered necessary to illustrate andfurther describe them in the present instance. I

The stop blades 2 and column stops 5 are so constructed and arranged that said blades have an equidistant throw to move them into interfering relation that is to say to intersect the common plane of the column stops 5. Hence, in order to tabulate to the last column position, at the extreme right it is necessary to progress successively from one column stop to another.

. According to our invention a special stop blade 12 is mounted at the right hand side of the series of blades 2, to depend from the shaft 4 as in the case of the stop blades 2. The special stop blade 12 is longer than the blades 2 to extend therebelow and in its projected position clears the column stops 5, or in other words is in noninterfering relation with respect thereto. At a suitable point below the plane of the column stops 5 said special stop blade 12 is provided with a rearwardly extending stop engaging lug 13 for a purpose presently seen.

Located, preferably at the extreme right of the series of column stops 5, is a special fixed column 1 stop 14 including a catch member 15 and a toothed stop portion 16 for locating said special stop on the stop bar 6 as in the case of the column stops 5. However, the special column stop 14 although it can be otherwise located, for instance, intermediate any two stops 5 or in other words in any selected column position, is provided with a blade engaging portion 17 in the plane of the column stops 5 but extending below the plane of said stops 5 in interfering relation with respect to the lug 13 of the special or selected stop blade 12 when the latter is in projecting position. In the preferred practice of my invention the special stop blade 12 is suitably connected to the maximum amount decimal tabulating key, to wit the 100 Mil key of our aforesaid Y patent, for operation thereby.

From the foregoing it will be seen that by virtue of our invention a special column position may be set up at the right or intermediate of a series of preceding column positions and the carriage skipped or jumped past the preceding column position to the special column position by operation of the maximum amount key.

Since the special column stop 14 is in the plane of the column stop 5 it is operatively related to the stop blades 2 for decimal tabulating the carriage thereby through the special or selected column position as illustrated in Figure 8.

The foregoing constitutes a description of a preferred embodiment of our invention but it is to be understood that right is herein reserved to changes and modifications falling within the scope of the protection prayed.

What we claim is:

1. The combination with a frame, a carriage movable on the frame, and series .of cooperating stops on the frame and carriage, respectively, adapted for decimal tabulation of the carriage through successive column positions only, of a pair of tabulating stops on the frame and carriage, respectively, cooperatively related for skipping said carriage past a predetermined number of column positions to a selected column position, the last named stop on the frame being cooperatively related to the series of stops on the carriage for decimal tabulation of the carriage through said selected column position.

2. The combination with a frame and carriage, a series of like horizontally aligned column stops on the frame, and decimal tabulating stops on the carriage adapted for decimal tabulation in cooperation with successive stops of said series, of a column skipping stop on the carriage projectable therefrom and clearing in its projected position the stops of said series, and another stop on the frame cooperatively related to the decimal tabulating stops and the column skipping stop.

3. The combination with a frame and carriage, a series of like horizontally aligned column stops on the frame, and decimal tabulating stops on the carriage adapted for decimal tabulating in cooperation with successive stops of said series, of a swinging column skipping stop on the carriage projectable into underlying relation to the stops of said seriesto clear the same, and another stop on the frame aligned with the stops of said series for cooperation with the decimal 

